Welcome to the Big Cats In Britain Wildlife Trigger Camera Blog

Welcome to the Big Cats In Britain Wildlife Trigger Camera Blog

The Big Cats in Britain organisation, (BCIB), predominately searches for evidence of native and non native feline species living in the British Countryside. Part of our research includes the use of wildlife trigger cameras, also known as stealth cams or trail cams . These operate using infra-red technology to take pictures of any animal that passes the camera.

Our members have dozens of these cameras in various locations around the British Isles, operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

This blog is dedicated to showing the general public, the animals we have captured on camera. These images are small snapshots of the diversity of animal life that can be found in our countryside.

We hope you enjoy them.......................

All images are copyright of the BCIB, if you wish to use any of these images online or in the media, please contact us first to obtain permission.

Unidentified "Big Cat" Video's

Latest Big Cat News

Monday, 23 January 2012

And yet another one from Joe. This time it's the dear old badger rooting around in the long grass. Joe seems to have the knack for getting good wildlife clips. Fingers crossed he gets a feline wandering past his camera.

Friday, 20 January 2012

We have a new researcher on board, Joe Parkes, and he has sent in several videos from his camera in Dorset. We will be posting the rest of them over the next few weeks. Today however we get a chance to look at a very intriguing video from him.

Friday, 6 January 2012

This is an image taken a good while back by Mark Fraser on one of his ancient Trail Master cams........(ah those were the days, 36 exposure 35mm film, never knowing what you had got till you got the film back from the developers. Usually costing £6.99 only to find you've got 36 pictures of a waving tree or bush)

Can anyone tell me the backgound behind this image. Clue - it relates to a very famous incident

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Todays images come from Ian Fraser's cameras which are currently deployed in Morayshire, Scotland. They show a nice selection of the Scottish wildlife including Roe Deer, Fox, Pheasant and .............well I'll let you try and identify the other bird species

Friday, 4 March 2011

Gary Ridley the BCIB Rep in deepest darkest Surrey sent in these images.

I'll let him explain his set-up.

"These are the latest shots from my new camera trap. (following the theft of my other one.) It’s positioned on a game trail cross roads. It’s secured to the tree in a Cuddesafe bear proof anti-theft box. Hopefully I might get a shot of the Lynx that has been seen in this area.

Saturday, 26 February 2011

Due to unforseen circumstances, we have not been able to update this blog until now. Inspite of no new images posted for nearly 3 months our cameras have been clicking away merrily over the winter period, snow and all. With a great variety of wildlife captured.

In the next few weeks we will post all the images, (in no particular order), gathered in this time.

Tuesday, 7 December 2010

Paul Nicolaides has passed on these nice shots of a Roe deer buck and doe. These are from a new location Paul is trying out. Ignore the dates on the pictures. One of the drawbacks of the cameras, is that every time you change the batteries they reset themselves and you have to re-input the time and date. Sometimes you just forget to do so.!

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

Thomas Jacks Ltd, kindly donated two Spypoint cameras. One was placed in Kintyre, and has taken some great wildlife shots. Badger, fox and buzzards have all been captured on hundreds of shots. Though we are still waiting for the cat to make an appearance.

This set of 29 images are of the local badger, having a good sniff around in front of the camera. I will post the foxes and buzzards at a later date.

Monday, 29 November 2010

Sharon Ramsden is one our newest members, and she joins Rik Snook in covering Kent and the South East.

She has placed the trail camera in a private wood in Kent near a field of sheep. Over the last few years something has been killing the sheep and they have never found out what is killing them. Back in 2008 there were two sightings of a big cat in a village 2 miles away. There was a unreported sighting about the same time of a big cat on farmland the other end of the village in which Sharon lives.

Sharon is also using a new brand of trail camera in the BCIB Trigger Camera Network It is a G&L M100. As you can see, the images are very clear.

So far Sharon has managed to get some nice shots of grey squirrels and foxes. Fingers crossed she finds out what has been attacking the sheep.

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Tim Jenkins in Warwickshire discovered a great sequence of photo's of a fox tucking into a rabbit when he checked his and Martin Cotterills' cameras on Monday. There were also a few dogs, a robin posing right in front of the cam and a very curious Homo sapiens!

These cams are in a location which has had previous big cat sightings and they are regularly baited with rabbits but unfortunately this particular rabbit was now quite ripe! The fox didn't seem to mind in the slightest though.

It does demonstrate how effective the cams are should we ever get a visit from a big cat though.

Monday, 15 November 2010

Martin Cotterill (BCIB Worcestershire), checked his cameras this weekend, only to discover he had left the cam on the video setting in error. Not to worry though, as he managed to get a short video clip of a badger scuttling away into the bushes

Monday, 1 November 2010

We may still be waiting for a clear image of a big cat, but some members are getting plenty of shots of another alien species, the Muntjac deer.

Originally from China, the first muntjac escapees came from Woburn Park in the mid 1920's. The current estmates indicate that the UK population is around 150,000, and increasing at around 8%-10% per year. It is believed that within a few decades they will be the most numerous species of deer in the UK, if left unchecked

These images have been captured by Martin Cotterill in Warwickshire on his Scoutguard cam.

Friday, 29 October 2010

One of the downsides of putting out these cameras, is the possibilty of them being stolen. I my self had two stolen a few years ago, and other members of the BCIB have also had cameras stolen in the past. I could say something about the people who take these cameras, but what's the point. The police can't do anything about it and the chances of getting them back are virtually nil. We pay for these cameras out of our own pockets and we can't always replace them straight away, especially in todays financial climate.

Bob Wallace had a camera stolen from a location in Fife in August, and we have just been informed that new BCIB member Gary Ridley has had his camera stolen in Surrey.

Gary is offering a reward for the return of the camera, and his story can be read here

A CAMERA positioned to capture the appearance of the legendary Surrey puma has itself disappeared this week.

The £300 device was put up at the Wotton Estate on Saturday (October 23) by the Surrey representative of Big Cats in Britain, but by Wednesday it had gone.

Gary Ridley is offering a cash reward for anyone with information on how it disappeared from the White Down Lane area of Abinger Hammer and which leads to its return.

He was keen to gather photographic evidence of the presence of a big cat in the area after a report of a sighting from a train to the north of Dorking station in September.

A woman passenger on her way to work said she had seen a golden brown animal which “looked like a lioness but not as bulky".

The animal was said to be around two metres long and was seen from around 100m away, from the 7.02am train to London Waterloo.

She reported the animal looked like a skinny lioness or a puma, and it was said to be skulking low through a field of sheep. Other passengers had apparently not looked up from their newspapers and so they missed it.

The sighting came as no surprise to Mr Ridley, who had his camouflage bark-coloured camera specially imported from the USA to capture such moments.

He had positioned the specialist piece of equipment, which others will struggle to operate without a manual or expert knowledge, on a gatepost.

“It had only been out there for four nights,” he said. “It’s an area where this cat may well move through. This puma may well have come from the Kent area, from Tunbridge Wells.

“We are trying to establish where they are, but we need proof. It’s all hearsay. There have been lots and lots of sightings so we are desperate to get these cameras out there.

“We’re desperate to get this camera back. I’m appealing to people’s good side to help us get it back.”

Anyone with information or with a sighting to report should e-mail garyridley@hotmail.co.uk.

Mr Ridley said there were signs that big cats were out in the area, but proving it has been difficult because they are so elusive and people are sceptical.

“The amount of sightings that there are prove to us that there is a phenomenon going on,” he said.

“The government are not going to want people to know that there are big cats out there because it will lead to fear.

“Rotting carcasses have gone missing and there are a number of pictures, but they are grainy. We just want one picture, but they are so elusive and they are nocturnal.”

Reported sightings of mystery beasts in the area in the past decade have been made near Farnham as well as in Shamley Green, Worplesdon and Tadworth.

Such sightings have given birth to the popular legend of the Surrey puma, and Mr Ridley said his father-in-law had also seen one in Clandon Park.

Thursday, 21 October 2010

Tim Jenkins, the Warickshire rep for the BCIB, has sent in these latest images from his new Scout Guard camera. Because he was unable to bait these cameras, it seems that the larger animals are keeping away, but he did get some nice shots of the country's smaller animals. Grey Squirrel, Rabbit and the smallest deer in the UK, the Muntjac

Saturday, 16 October 2010

I am lucky enough to have access to a private wood and river in Kintyre, where the owners allow me to trial out my cameras before putting them out in more remote locations. I am able to try different techniques in a safe location trying to get the best shots possible

For a change, as a favour to the owners, I have been trying to get images of the otters that frequent the river. With sardines, codling, and mackeral as bait, the cameras have been placed on a small "beach" on the river bank, where otter prints have been spotted

So what did I get when I first checked the camera, did I get an otter, nope I got a black cat. Not one of the big ones, but a big feral tom cat that puts in rare appearances in the area

Undaunted, I re-baited the area, and left the camera to do its work. Returning today, I collected the SD card from the camera, and checked the images. And what was the first image on the card, was it the elusive otter. No, just another feral cat. This time a black and white one, which the owners think is the mate of the black one.

Here we go again, I thought, but the rest of the pictures on the card, put a smile on my face. We got the otter. Ok, they are not the greatest shots. No perfect profiles, but definitely otter. Another one to add to the list of animals captured on our cameras

Thursday, 14 October 2010

Gary Ridley has recently joined our ranks and will be covering the county of Surrey. He has had trail cameras out in the field for a while and has sent these great clear shots of a fox and badger that were taken recently on his Cuddeback camera.

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

At the new location in Kintyre, I have two Cuddeback cameras at either end of a grass path through a newly planted wood. The trees are about 4-5 foot high. This location was chosen because some large scat was found here in the past which was very cat like. It has been baited with fresh rabbit, (taken by pest control from the local golf courses), with the hope the cat will return.

Well, the rabbit was stripped bare within days leaving nothing but fur and a couple of leg bones. The culprit was not a big cat unfortunately, but a crow, a hooded crow, and two buzzards.

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Although I have left a single camera located at each of the sites in Kintyre previously featured in this blog, I have recently put 6 cameras into a brand new location. This location is one I have been wanting to get into for several years and is smack in the middle of the area that has had more cat sightings than any other in Kintyre over the last 5 years.

I have placed this camera on the edge of a forest fence, where it is obvious that an animal has crawled under it creating a very large hole. As you can see, it is not just one animal that is using this "tunnel", as we have images of both fox and badger. Along with a number of sub-adult pheasants. The hole in the fence is to the left of the frame.

Subscribe To

.

.

Share It

Search This Blog

Loading...

.

Big Cats in Britain need your help. We are constantly struggling to find funds to continue, and expand our research. Any donation from one pound upward will really help us go a long way. Paypal with bigcatsinbritain@btinternet.com

Big Cats In Britain Year Book 2010.

How to Order

The 2010 Year Book is now available, at 192 pages, A4 size

It is selling for £13.50p inclusive of postage.

Email bigcatsinbritain@btinternet.com for ordering details.

The book features several articles from researchers around the British Isles as well as the USA, along with the usual sightings round up for 2009.

A round-up that has proved invaluable for the serious researchers among us.